Enhanced Biological Phosphorus Removal from Wastewater by Biomass with Different Phosphorus Contents, Part I: Experimental Results and Comparison with Metabolic Models

Abstract

Enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR) in wastewater treatment involves at least two types of bacterial metabolism: a polyphosphate-accumulating metabolism (PAM) and a glycogen-accumulating metabolism (GAM). Laboratory-scale sequencing batch reactors operated in an anaerobic-aerobic cycle confirmed that low influent phosphorus/chemical oxygen demand (COD) ratio feed favored a GAMdominated culture and high influent phosphorus/COD ratio feed favored a PAM-dominated culture, as indicated by changes in phosphorus, acetate, glycogen, and polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) concentrations during the anaerobic phase. Differential PAM and GAM dominance may explain variance in anaerobic phosphorus release, glycogen degradation, and PHA synthesis per acetate uptake ratios previously reported in EBPR systems and proposed metabolic models. The measurement of the ratios of anaerobic phosphorus release to acetate uptake and glycogen degradation to acetate uptake is suggested as an assay to estimate the relative dominance of PAM and GAM, respectively, in EBPR cultures. Water Environ. Res., 75, 485 (2003).

Survey of Full Scale Side-Stream EBPR Facilities and Comparison with Conventional EBPR: Process Stability, Kinetics and Microbial Ecology

“…It has been found to correlate 302 well with the relative abundance of Accumulibacter in EBPR sludge (Oehmen et al, 2007). The 303 P-release/HAc uptake ratios varied among facilities ranging from 0.14 mol P/mol C to 0.54 mol 304 P/mol C, which agree with those reported for EBPR systems (0.01-0.93 mol P/mol C) as 305 summarized in the study by Schuler and Jenkins (2003). The theoretical P/HAc was suggested to 306 be 0.5-0.75 mol P/mol C based on acetate-fed lab-scale systems (Table S1).…”

“…The P-release/HAc uptake (P/HAc) ratio is influenced by many factors, such as the pH and 300 carbon source, and it has been often used as indicator of the relative PAO and GAO activities 301 and abundance (Saunders et al 2003;Schuler and Jenkins, 2003). It has been found to correlate 302 well with the relative abundance of Accumulibacter in EBPR sludge (Oehmen et al, 2007).…”

Metagenomic analysis of two enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR) sludge communities

“…The SBR was fed with acetate, casamino acids, and a mineral salts medium with sodium phosphate to achieve a COD:P of 14 (mg COD: mg P) 2,3 and to achieve a sludge nonsoluble phosphorus content of 18% (mg P per mg of volatile suspended solids). The SBR had been operating for 11 months at the time of sampling for metagenomic analysis.…”

“…Thus, part of the EBPR research community still uses the EM pathway while another uses the ED pathway for stochiometric calculations. Both choices yield models fitting some stochiometic ratios properly and others less optimally, depending on the system (a summary can be found in Schuler et al 3 ). As pointed out by Seviour et al 35 , the main weak point of most EBPR studies is that the structure and functional relationships of the populations involved are mainly unknown.…”

“…Increasingly stringent Pi limits for effluent wastewater are expected in the future and hence efficient and reliable Pi removal methods are required. Due to the massive quantity of wastewater treated daily (more than 120 billion liters in the US alone 3 ), any improvement in existing methods should have tangible economic and ecological consequences.…”